Ministry of Justice

Ministry of Justice: Temporary Employment

Andy Slaughter: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the Answer of 10 December 2015 to Question 18873, what proportion of his Department's staff were agency workers covering (a) operational uniformed staff and (b) clerical agency staff in each year since 2010.

Mr Sam Gyimah: We only use temporary staff to fill business-critical posts and essential frontline services, where they can offer a fast, flexible and efficient way of providing skills not currently available in-house. The proportion of the department’s staff agency workers either covering operational uniformed staff of clerical agency staff is displayed in the following table. Data prior to 2011/12 is not available.  Year-end dateProportion of Operational Uniformed StaffProportion of Clerical agency staff31/03/20121.92%0.58%31/03/20132.03%0.76%31/03/20143.17%1.14%31/03/20154.61%1.61%

Department for International Trade

Overseas Trade

Mr David Lammy: To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what estimate his Department has made of how long it will take to negotiate bilateral trade deals with (a) USA, (b) China, (c) Japan, (d) Canada and (e) other large non-EU trading partners once the UK leaves the EU.

Greg Hands: I refer the Rt hon Member to the answer of 21 July to UIN 42585.

Trade Agreements

Mr David Lammy: To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what plans his Department has to hire third party contractors to support its work on trade negotiations; what the duration of such contracts will be; and what estimate his Department has made of the cost to the public purse of such contractors over the lifetime of those contracts.

Mr David Lammy: To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, how many trade negotiators are employed by his Department.

Mr David Lammy: To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what estimate his Department has made of the number of trade negotiators required to negotiate the UK's trade deals when the UK leaves the EU.

Greg Hands: The Rt hon Member will be aware that my Rt hon Friend the Prime Minister has created a new Department for International Trade, which is responsible for promoting British trade across the world and ensuring the UK takes advantage of the huge opportunities open to us. We are building up our trade policy capability. ​The new Department has begun a process to recruit and train staff to work on the UK’s trade policy. We will adapt the resource devoted to trade policy in line with future demands.